Has coronavirus spelled the end of Clean Air Zones?

Public Affairs Director Christine Quigley looks at Clean Air Zones and the impact coronavirus has had on their adoption

This week, Bristol City Council announced that it may scrap its plans to introduce a Clean Air Zone (CAZ), having announced to some fanfare last November that it would become the UK’s first city to ban diesel cars from entering parts of the city centre to cut pollution. The Government signed off Bristol’s scheme earlier this year, with the removal of the diesel ban, and the scheme was originally scheduled to be introduced by  April 2021 at the latest. This follows news last week that Leeds is also to revisit its plans to introduce a fee-based CAZ, initially due to come into force at the end of next month (September 2020). 

Both local authorities have cited the impact of coronavirus in making their decisions, with Bristol Mayor saying that “new opportunities” other than the planned CAZ could “achieve cleaner air faster whilst avoiding unintended negative consequences caused by charging vulnerable communities in Bristol”. Leeds City Council deputy leader James Lewis said that the city will be reviewing the long-term impact of the pandemic and recent investments in public transport and active travel to understand whether pollution will reach illegal levels, and promised to clarify the situation further in the autumn. 

It’s fair to say that coronavirus could have a long-term impact on air quality levels. During the early phases of lockdown, the stay-at-home message saw enormous reductions in travel, both via private vehicle and public transport, with significant improvements in air quality. Major firms in large UK cities are beginning to announce that they will no longer be requiring staff to work from offices, while estate agents outside of major cities are experiencing spikes in interest as the work-from-home revolution is enabling more people to move to cheaper suburban and rural areas. It remains to be seen how much of an impact this will have on long-term commuting patterns. While delivery vehicles are a more and more common sight all across the UK during the pandemic as people switch to online shopping, freight companies are competing to decarbonise their fleets quickly through adopting electric vans, e-cargo bikes and other clean last-mile delivery solutions. 

Could this decision also be a political one? Both Bristol and Leeds are Labour-led local authorities with elections coming up in May 2021. A particular challenge for Labour in local government in recent years has been balancing the need to tackle air quality, which disproportionately impacts poorer communities, with the need to limit potentially regressive schemes such as flat-rate charging CAZs, which will penalise people on lower incomes with older cars who are less able to make the switch to cleaner vehicles. CAZs could become a key issue when people go to the polls earlier next year. However, YouGov polling in May 2020 found that 79% of city-dwellers in the UK support cities taking measures to protect them from air pollution, including preventing polluting cars entering city centres. UK respondents to this survey polled significantly more favourably on zero-emission zones than the six-country average of 68% and the 55% support of German respondents. 

Earlier this year, Defra had announced that the introduction of all CAZs would be delayed from 2020 to January 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the implementation of CAZs remains Government policy. These recent announcements from key cities are similarly likely to be a pause, rather than an outright rejection, of the concept of CAZs. As economy and society recovers from the pandemic, there will be pressure from green groups and ordinary citizens to ensure that air quality is not a casualty of economic growth. 

Photo by Noralí Emilio on Unsplash